Common Pregnancy Complications Tied to Heart Disease Deaths Later On

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Pregnant women who experience certain complications related to
their pregnancies may have an increased risk of dying from heart
disease later in life, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that the women in the study who had high levels
of sugar in the urine during pregnancy were about four times more
likely to die from
heart disease over the 50-year study, compared with the women
who did not have high levels of sugar in their urine when they
were pregnant.

The investigators also found that the women who experienced a
decline in their levels of hemoglobin during pregnancy were about
twice as likely to die from heart disease later in life, compared
with the pregnant women who did not experience the decline. The
level of hemoglobin in the blood is a measure of how well red
blood cells can carry oxygen throughout the body, the researchers
said.

"The idea here is not necessarily that these events of pregnancy
cause women to die of cardiovascular disease," said study author
Barbara A. Cohn, director of Child Health and Development Studies
at the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, California. "The idea
is that, just like a person's cholesterol level and blood
pressure are considered risk factors [for heart disease], so
should those
pregnancy complications."

In the study, the researchers looked at about 15,500 women
in the metropolitan area of Oakland, California, who became
pregnant between 1959 and 1967. As of 2011, 368 women had died of
heart disease. The average age of the women at the start of the
study was 26, and 66 in 2011.

The researchers also found that having certain combinations of
pregnancy complications was related to a significantly higher
risk of death from heart disease. For example, the women who had
both pre-existing high blood pressure (diagnosed before they
delivered) and delivered their babies too early were about seven
times more likely to die of heart disease later on than those who
did not have this combination of complications. [ Blossoming
Body: 8 Odd Changes That Happen During Pregnancy ]

The women who had pre-existing
high blood pressure along with pre-eclampsia (a condition
that involves high blood pressure and high levels of protein in
the urine), were nearly six times more likely to die from heart
disease than those who did not have this combination of
complications, the scientists found.

The women who had pre-existing high blood pressure and whose
babies were
smaller than normal when they were born were almost five
times more likely to die from heart disease, compared with the
women who did not have this combination of complications, the
researchers found.

Women who experienced any of these complications during pregnancy
should mention them to their physicians later on, Cohn said.
Also, physicians should ask women whether they had them, she
said.

This way, their doctors can monitor these women's health more
closely or make specific recommendations that may help lower
their risk of dying from heart disease. "These findings are
important because we think that by asking women about pregnancy
history, doctors might be able to save lives," Cohn told Live
Science.

The new study was published today (Sept. 21) in the journal
Circulation.